Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. , commonly known as Super Smash Bros. 64, SSB, or SSB64, is a N64 fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. It's the first installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series and then spawned four sequels; Melee, Brawl, 3DS/Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game was also made available through the Virtual Console for anyone a with gold membership for Club Nintendo in 2013. The game allows players to fight characters from Nintendo's franchises such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Pikachu, Samus Aran, and Kirby. Premise The game has a loose premise involving a being known as Master Hand bringing to life doll versions of classic Nintendo characters to fight. This is mainly illustrated in the game's opening movie. Master Hand is the end boss of the single player mode, and after beating him a short movie plays showing the fighter return to a lifeless doll. Gameplay Super Smash Bros. is unlike most traditional "arcade-style" fighting games such as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. Whereas most fighting games task the player with depleting an opponent's health meter, in Smash Bros. the goal is to KO your opponent by knocking them off the stage. Fighters have a "percentage" which increases from 0% to a maximum of 999% as the player takes damage. The higher the percentage, the easier it is to be knocked off the stage by an opponent's attack. Stages are rendered in 3D, but characters are restricted to moving in two dimensions, but they can move freely around the stage. Most stages consist of floating islands and platforms, making it possible to be KO'd in any direction. If a fighter is knocked off the stage, they may use a series of jumps in an attempt to recover. Some characters like Kirby have many jumps, making their recovery much easier, while others like Donkey Kong have a weaker recovery but are heavier and thus harder to knock off the stage. Smash Bros. offers up to 4-player matches with twelve Nintendo characters to choose from. Each of the characters have distinctive attacks, most of the time based on their moves from their own respective series of games. For example, Mario's Fireball originated in Super Mario Bros., Yoshi's Egg Throw from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island and Pikachu's various electrical attacks from the multiple Pokémon video games. Despite each character having their own move-sets, the way in which they are controlled is almost identical. In most "arcade-style" fighting games, each character has their own unique, sometimes complicated, combinations of button presses that must be executed to perform certain abilities. Smash Bros. however, uses only a one-button and control stick combination at a time for every character, offering a wide range of abilities that are all easily accessible. Other moves such as dodging, shielding, grabbing and throwing are also used. Characters The game features a cast of twelve playable characters from ten difference franchises, four of which must be unlocked by completing certain tasks. Starters Unlockable Characters Stages *Princess Peach's Castle - Mario's homestage. A Bumper flies above the middle of the playing field causing 1% damage to all who get hit *Kongo Jungle - A short field which is Donkey Kong's homestage. A barrel at the bottom of the screen aids characters from falling to their certain death. But Watch out, because the barrel could point the wrong way and blast you off the stage! *Hyrule Castle - Link's homestage. A large Stage that features many platforms and a tornado appears once in a while. *Yoshi's Story - Yoshi's homestage. A large place with many platforms and clouds that hold the player up before falling. *Dream Land - Kirby's homestage. It is really big and contains Whispy Woods as an obstacle. It is designed to be easiest when playing as either Kirby or Jigglypuff. *Planet Zebes - Samus's homestage. Acid rises from the bottom and damages everyone who makes contact with it. Acid causes 16% and lots of knockback. *Sector Z - Fox's homestage. The largest stage in the whole game. Watch out for Arwings that shoot players. *Saffron City - Pikachu's and Jigglypuff's homestage. A Fairly Big Pokémon stage. Sometimes Pokémon appear and attacks someone. *Mushroom Kingdom - Luigi's homestage. In the 3 pipes you can go down, you appear in a different location. Piranha Plants come up from the pipes and attack people. Lastly, a POW block appears and whoever hits it knocks the other players, who are on the ground, up into the air. (this stage is unlockable) *Other Stages - Metal Mario's Residence, Battlefield (the fight with the Fighting Polygon Team), Master Hand's Residence (considered to be the original Final Destination). Items To make things more interesting, you can also use items. Some of these are the Poké Ball which summons a Pokémon that attacks the enemy or does something to the stage, a Bob-omb that explodes when you throw it, or if it's left on the ground for too long it starts to walk around and if it hits anyone it explodes, Motion Sensor Bombs that explode when a character walks over it, a Heart Container which recovers health, and a Fire Flower which acts as a Flamethrower when you use it. Development Apparently, the game was first going to be released on the SNES with the use of the Super FX Chip, just like Star Fox, though it was transferred onto the Nintendo 64. This was most likely done so the game could have better graphics and controls. Initially when HAL was developing the game, they didn't implement characters from Nintendo's games, but rather just had standard polygonal characters in a Japanese setting (in fact in the background of one of the stages the Nintendo headquarters in Kyoto could be seen). Eventually they made the move to Nintendo characters. The game also had a very small budget. Nintendo didn't expect it to be a big hit! Reception Super Smash Bros. received mostly positive reviews, with criticism mostly directed towards the game's single-player mode.[http://www.gamespot.com/n64/action/supersmashbros/review.html Gamespot Super Smash Bros. Review] GameSpot's former editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, noted the single-player game "won't exactly last a long time".[http://www.gamespot.com/n64/action/supersmashbros/review.html Gamespot Super Smash Bros. Review] Instead, he praised the multi-player portion of the game, saying that it is "extremely simple to learn".[http://www.gamespot.com/n64/action/supersmashbros/review.html Gamespot Super Smash Bros. Review] He also praised the game's music, calling it "amazing". GameCritics.com's Dale Weir described Super Smash Bros. as "the most original fighting game on the market and possibly the best multiplayer game on any system".[http://www.gamecritics.com/review/smashbros/main.php GameCritics.com Super Smash Bros. Review] There were criticisms, however, such as the game's scoring being difficult to follow. In addition, the single-player mode was criticized for its perceived difficulty and lack of features. It was deemed one of the ten best Mario games of all time by ScrewAttack from GameTrailers.[http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22754.html ScrewAttack - Top 10 Mario Games] It was given an Editors' choice award from IGN.[http://ign64.ign.com/articles/160/160494p1.html IGN.com - Smash Bros Review Nintendo 64] Sales Super Smash Bros. was commercially successful, and quickly became a Player's Choice title. Super Smash Bros. is the fifth best selling game for the Nintendo 64, selling 5.55 million copies worldwide; 1.97 million copies were sold in Japan, 2.93 million have been sold in North America, and 650,000 have been sold elsewhere, as of December 31, 2009.http://www.vgchartz.com/platform/10/nintendo-64/ Development Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during 1998. It began life as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time entitled 'Kakuto-Gēmu Ryūō' (格闘ゲーム竜王 ?, lit. "Dragon King: The Fighting Game"), and originally featured no Nintendo characters. However, Iwata hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide "atmosphere" which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game, and their idea was approved. The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide.http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/ssbb/vol7_page1.jsp Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl Legacy So far, the game has spawned four sequels - Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The series quickly built a name for itself and by the third installement, it started to include third party characters that had reached an iconic status in gaming history namely Sonic and Solid Snake. At Nintendo's press conference at E3 2011, the first portable Super Smash Bros. game was announced in the form of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. The fourth and fifth installement built on the crossover aspect and added Pac-Man, Mega Man, Ryu and Cloud Strife alongside Sonic as Snake was cut from the roster. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate saw the return of all the previously cut characters and added Ken, Simon Belmont and Richter Belmont in the roster of third party characters. The original Super Smash Bros. was released on the Virtual Console for the Wii for 1,000 Wii points ($10) in 2009. Pre-release and unused content Peach's Castle initially lacked the sign, bridge and sliding stone block present in the final version. References to other games *''Donkey Kong'' - One of Mario's alternate costumes is based his original outfit. Also, one of Donkey Kong's alternate costumes is based on the color scheme of his sprite. In addition, although not in the game itself, the Nintendo Power ad for the game indirectly alludes to Mario and Donkey Kong's origins as rivals by mentioning off-handedly that Mario and Donkey Kong have not "duked it out" for more than a decade. *''Wrecking Crew'' - One of Mario's alternate costumes is based on Foreman Spike's colors and one of Luigi's alternate costumes is based on the color scheme of his sprite. Also, another of Mario's alternate costumes is based on the outfit from the Spanish box cover. *''Super Mario Bros.'' - The Mushroom Kingdom stage refers to the original game with a flagpole and a castle. Also, one of Luigi's alternate costumes is based on the color scheme of his sprite and another is based on the flashing animation colors of his sprite. *''Super Mario World'' - Luigi's default costume is based on the color scheme of his sprite. Also, in addition to the Green Yoshi being Yoshi's default costume, three of Yoshi's alternate costumes are the Red, Yellow, and Blue Yoshis. *''Mario Kart'' series - Although not in the game itself, the Nintendo Power ad when announcing Super Smash Bros alludes to both Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 when stating that Nintendo's famous cast had previously "raced go-karts" when announcing their new role in the fighting ring. *''Mario Party'' - Although not in the game itself, the Nintendo Power ad when announcing Super Smash Bros alludes to Mario Party when stating that Nintendo's famous cast had previously "partied heartily" when announcing their new role in the fighting ring. *''Donkey Kong'' (Game Boy) - Two of Donkey Kong's alternate costumes are based on the color scheme of his sprites on both the Game Boy and Game Boy Color screens. *''Donkey Kong Country'' - Donkey Kong's default costume is based on his appearance in this game. Also, the Kongo Jungle stage is based on this game. His 1P Mode ending also was taken directly from the stock art for Donkey Kong Country. *''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'' - Two of Yoshi's alternate costumes are based on the Cyan and Pink Yoshis. *''Super Mario 64'' - Mario's moves and voice clips were taken from Super Mario 64. Although Luigi was absent from the game, his moves, and voice clips are identical to Mario's, but sped up. Also, Mario's default costume is based on his outfit in this game and the Peach's Castle stage is based on this game. *''Yoshi's Story'' - Yoshi's voice clips were reused in this game. Also, the Yoshi's Island stage is based on this game. Yoshi's 1P Mode ending, where Yoshi is trapped between a book, also was a direct reference to the plot of Yoshi's Story where Baby Bowser cursed Yoshi's Island to become a storybook. Trivia *''Super Smash Bros.'' was originally going to be a Japanese-only release, but due to its success, it eventually saw a worldwide release. *Jigglypuff was a last-minute addition to the game. It was chosen because its model could be easily made out of Kirby and because it was one of the more popular Pokemon of the era. *Originally Bowser, King Dedede, Mewtwo, and Meowth were going to be playable, but weren't included.http://games.yahoo.co.jp/qa/detail?qid=1090755405 This is because Nintendo wanted the playable characters to all be heroes, not villains, for the first game. A similar thing occurred with Banjo from Banjo-Kazooie, but this was because they couldn't get the licence from his original company, Rare. *Link's voice clips were recycled from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time while the other playable characters have unique voice clips. *This is the only game in the series to not feature stages from Earthbound and F-Zero. *This is also the only game in the series to receive an ESRB rating of E for Everyone. Its successors are both rated T for Teen while the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions (alongside Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) are rated E10+ for Everyone 10+. *When the player chooses a character, the character will do a short animation in the player's box; this is the only game in the series that does this. *This is the only game in the Super Smash Bros. series up until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where the characters are not trophies. They are dolls and the stages are dioramas brought to life by Master Hand. *This is the only Wii Virtual Console release related to the Mario series that has not been re-released on the Wii U's Virtual Console service. References External links *''Super Smash Bros.'' on Smashpedia *[http://www.ssbwiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros. Super Smash Bros. on SmashWiki] DE: Super Smash Bros. (Spiel) ES: Super Smash Bros. JA: ニンテンドウオールスター!大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ PT-BR: Super Smash Bros. Category:Major Nintendo games Category:Nintendo 64 games Category:Virtual Console games (Wii, Nintendo 64) Category:1999 video games Category:2009 video games Category:Super Smash Bros. games Category:Fighting games Category:HAL Laboratory games Category:Nintendo games Category:Club Nintendo Category:Games published by Nintendo Category:Super Smash Bros. series Category:Crossover games Category:Player's Choice games